The Walking Dead Stupidity Countdown

I like The Walking Dead for the most part, and I think it even has great moments sometimes (like the jaw-dropping last ten minutes of the previous episode), but as it returned last night, it reminded me that there’s often a whole lot of stupid going on. For as cool as the concept is, there are just plot developments and character motivations that have me scratching my head week after week.

I’m not doing a full review, but here’s my countdown of the dumbest moments of last night’s episode.

5. Hershel still thinks he can tell eight people, armed to the teeth, to “get off his property.”

4. Yes, Nebraska is clearly the best bet because it’s full of small towns and lots of guns. Completely unlike the exact place they’re in now.

3. Zombies induce young love. Really Maggie, you’ve fallen hard for the little Asian errand boy and have professed your love for him after knowing him for a WEEK? But don’t worry, as Rick says I’m sure you’re “smart enough to know what you’re feeling.”

2. Cocky guy from Pittsburgh, you waltz into a bar and try to outdraw THREE men with your fat friend? And they didn’t even tell you where the farm was! And if you did find it, I’m pretty sure Shane would butcher you before you came within 500 yards. I just don’t know why you’d even ACT like you were drawing down in that situation at the bar, much less ACTUALLY DO IT. If you were that stupid, you shouldn’t have survived this long.

1. Lori, they already went to get Herschel because they knew the girl was sick. What the hell were you speeding over there to urgently tell them? No guys, she’s REALLY in shock now. Annnd bam, you wrecked a perfectly good Mercury Sable and possibly killed your unborn child. Way to go.

About The Author

Paul

I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point.

JB

Totally agree on the Lori part. I was watching that and saying to myself “what the hell is the point of her driving out there”? Becuase the plot says so thats why.

J5

“Annnd bam, you wrecked a perfectly good Mercury Sable and possibly killed your unborn child. Way to go.”

At least it wasnt a dodge stratus, the world would never recover.

I actually completely forgot about her being pregnant until right now, so I guess apart from it being a stupidly uneccessary incident, it may move the story along now that they dont have to wait around for a baby to come. But that’ll be overshadowed by the endless amounts of episodes before she gets better…

5. Hershel still thinks he can tell eight people, armed to the teeth, to “get off his property.”

– A very southern thing to do. This is very believable.

4. Nebraska – the biggest differences between NE and GA are the forests, Nebraska is very flat and open. Not sure that’s enough of a reason to make the voyage, but there is a difference…

3. Yes this story line is kinda weak. I can see how her marrying young to big fat Otis, would make her pretty sexually frustrated. Glen at first may have been a whim, but after rescuing her by bludgeoning a zombie to death, he’s become her knight in shining, blood-covered armor. I can see reasons for her infatuation to grow. Especially if, more than likely, she’s only been with Otis her whole life. I think it’s really pushing it, but not completely unbelievable. Bitches be crazy.

2. Yes that was stupid, but I did love Rick going all-out cowboy on those city-slickers. lol.

The Lori thing was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Rick was gone less than 15 minutes before she decided she had to go get him. He had barely gotten to town. It’s not like he was gone for hours and she thought he might be in trouble. I hope she dies.

Diarmuid212

@Steve don’t spoil the story straight from the comics. Lots of us could but we don’t for the benefits for those who have not read them.

AciddTripp

Otis was married to Patricia (the older blonde woman), not Maggie.

Romple

figures someone with a Twilight Sparkle avatar correcting facts ^ 😀

boog

Please stop writing about this sub par show.

Diarmuid212

^ please stop trolling. I (and obviously others) think this show is great and like hearing the different constructive comments people have about it.

Jeff

#6- Glen was riding around with his shotgun pointed at his face.

Tonyctitan

The whole “lori” thing was just plain bad writing. I mean really? You are pregnant and rushing to the aid of your sherif husband who has a gigantic handgun. That was retarded. I really hope her character is dead so they don’t have an opportunity to write in an even more stupid storyline for her.

GamerEly

I think we all uttered a collective groan at lori “we have to go get the guys that went to go get the guy because of…. boredom!?” But yeah…. that was ULTIMATE badassary when Rick killed those two guys.

The Wolf

what i don’t get is why so many people bash lori or rick. or shane for that matter. all these characters are written beautifully, and the storyline/plot is starting to come together nicely.

you hate lori for going to get her husband, right?
you forget that dale just told her his assumptions about “the murderous” shane. also, it’s the end of the world. also, her kid just recovered from being shot. also, the only other kid in the camp is carl and he’s starting to become a man even though he’s younger than most of us watching this show. so forgive me if it’s wrong that lori wants to keep her family together during the zombie apocalypse.

oh, and they could get more cars if they wanted to. and another baby if that’s really what y’all want. damn.

rosstopher

When she left and started looking at the map, i knew she was going to crash. No guys go alone, even rick took glen and shes a pregnant women for that matter. Even the old dude or the blonde chick would be good enough protection, its not like the town was overrun. Sooooo stupid, otherwise an entertaining episode, i loved the showdown at the end, very western. And Glen should stay, the old man isnt gonna live forever, someone needs to protect those women.

That all made so much sense. And the fact that Glenn is probably gonna kill himself sooner or later having had to hold so many secrets and that he “just” lost his virginity, it seems like a typical thing to do. I think Lori already damn near killed herself if she dun get outta that wrecked car. I really dun think she has a concept of time, I mean wasn’t it just a few minutes ago that Rick and Glenn went to town before she tries to be “He-Woman” and go after them in a car? And on top of that, she hit a walker and wrecked the damn car. No telling how many more was walking around out there. And how long was Sophia in that damn barn?

Oh lets not forget Old man Hershel with all his secrets, how many more zombies do they got out there trapped somewhere? I mean, good lord man, you had 1 in a well and bout 20 of them in the barn that they been feeding. What’s the big deal with Shane and Andrea? Did anyone other than me see that coming?

I’m not gonna even question what happened at the bar, Rick simply snapped, that’s all to it. I knew that was bound to happen. And when is Merle or Maron and his son Duwayne gonna show up? Did they make it?

evilcupcakes

Lori is a controlling, clueless shrew. She went out there more because Darrell snapped at her and she had something to prove. The sooner she becomes zombie chow the better.

What’s-Her-Face loves Glenn because Glenn is totally adorable, smart, and geeky. That’s going to be rare in the apocalypse. You’d be surprised how fast you can fall in love when pickings are slim and adrenaline is high.

Those tools at the bar were probably used to taking what they wanted from whomever with little real resistance. They suffered from a bully’s over confidence, that’s why they tried to draw first. Rick, Glenn and Herschel don’t look like a threat on the surface, and these douches had the mentality of gamers calling each other homophobic slurs in chat.

And yes, Herschel telling them to get off his property was a VERY Southern thing. Especially in Georgia. People from the “Old South” culture (vs hillbillies and rednecks) are almost like the English when it comes to a sense of propriety transcending all adversity. I should know, I married one. Also, Herschel=King of Self-Delusion.

In the event of the apocalypse, people are always going to be looking for “the way out”. Rumors will get started, and people will believe them out of hope. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the south, but even the rural areas are relatively densely populated. Nebraska has more stretches of “nothing”, so I can understand the appeal (but I would head west if I were them. There are places out here where you can drive for an hour without seeing any sign of human habitation).

I still like the show this season. I don’t really understand all the hate. Many of the characters are annoying, but that works for me because that’s how the apocalypse would be: stuck with a bunch of idiots you didn’t really want to be with but needed for a sense of security.

Deke

#1 is the only one I completely agree with and I was thinking it while I was watching last night. The others are a major stretch or based on faulty logic, IMHO.

kongobong

Does anyone else think that Lori was driving to the school in hope to confirm Dale’s suspect of Shane sacrificing Otis?
Otis’ body realistically should be long eaten but imho it is less ridiculous than her going after Rick & Hershel.

BrockSamson

I vote you make this an ongoing column, so I can laugh at this show on a more-than-once-per-week basis.

Steve

Without spoiling things like the other Steve, the comic is full of pointless decisions and goings on that exist as the sole driving point for the plot, because if people acted rationally, they’d have secured a large gated community or military base or secure facility (what, there’s only that one “Super CDC” facility from season one? Jumped the zombie shark when they went there but ignored Ft Stewart, driving North to Bragg, or looking for any other secure building like that one) cleared it out, and restarted civilization by now. It’s extraordinarily difficult to write zombie fiction that finds a balance between the zombies as a threat and the humans having a survivability beyond a few days (you either control and defeat the outbreak, or you all die… someone gets the flu in this new world, it’s game over, so really, there’s no believable way to stretch this out unless it just becomes “people rebuilding” or “an hour of zombies shambling by the camera” inside of a month) — neither Kirkman (the creator of the comic) nor the writers of the TV show have really shown the type of chops needed to pull this off without padding their series with filler episodes and using “people being stupider than the mindless creatures roaming the country” to drive things forward.

Lola

i hate how Lori bitches at Daryll for being selfish. Daryll was grieving over Sophia so much and she waltzes over there telling Daryll he should drag her ass and fetch her husband for her. Whattabiatch!!!! team Daryll ftw lol

@Paul – My bad, it was the blonde chick… then that just means she has even more pent up frustrations…

Jason

I never liked Lori or Shane, but it stemmed from my already knowing what goes down between all of them. Still, they’ve made the two very hard to understand.

Furthermore, the “they’re just sick” thing has been done already. It’s difficult to like the old man that is holding a barn full of zombies on the hopes that they’ll be cured. I mean, c’mon! What if suddenly they ARE cured? Now they’re just corpses. It’s not really a point up for discussion. Period.

As for the “feel” of the show. I always imagined the situation like this: The survivors live in a bubble, barely holding the ocean of undead at bay…and each survivor has a needle. It’s the story of constantly needing to find new bubbles because somebody got mad or did something stupid, or pissed off the wrong person and suddenly they are all drowning.